Building another Exo Suit

Yesterday, I posted about my building experience of the Ideas Exo Suit, one of the most popular sets of recent years in the Lego range.

But did you know that about half a decennia ago, Lego had a complete range dedicated to Exo suit powered machines?

Exo Force ran from 2006 to 2008, and has about 25 sets in the range, all based on the japanese mecha genre.  Now being a Gundam and the likes fan, needless to say I a rather crazy about the range, but as this fell in my Dark Ages, it is hard to find them still.

Yet a few weeks ago I found one on `2dehands.be`, sort of a Craigslist within Belgium, for about 5 euros.  The set, 7708, is called Uplink and comes complete with `spiky anime hair` minifig.

Looking at the box art, we see a drawn version of it`s pilot, Ryo, as well as a magna-ised version of the build instead of the usual `real` build.  The back of the box details a possible alternate build for the set, something I do miss on current day boxes.

Opening the box, we get 2 polybags, one with the small parts and one with the large, as well as the instruction booklet and decal sheet.

Like most mecha, the body is build around a central frame with a standing platform for the pilot.

See this piece?  Believe it or not, but something actually slipped through the quality control in Denmark.  The instructions and art talk about a black base with light grey handle, but the parts included are the reverse colour.  Not that it matters much in the build, and if I wished I could have just swapped it around with parts of my own collection, but stil, it`s rare something like this happens with Lego.

Next up, we build the legs, whom have a decent amount of articulation points.  The orange is a nice colour for a mech, as most animes also tend to sport flashy coloured mobile suits.

The suit is heavenly armed for something it`s size.  The left arm contains a dual missile system, while on the right we get a big gatling gun.

The suit then gets the armoured shoulderpads attached, and is ready for engaging the enemy, only decals are needing to be added. 

Now, for builds that I tend to take apart again afterwards, I usually don`t add the decals, I just build it once for the experience, then part it out into my collection.  But since these suits are something I`m really fancying, I`m adding them as he will be going on display.

Of course, you have a few left over pieces, and the pilot comes with spiky haircut.  I`m just a bit let down by the two possible facial expressions, but heck, that`s a detail.

And here the Uplink as the suit is officially called stands right next to the more well known Exo Suit from yesterday!

Can`t say I don`t like this little suit a lot, especially considering I`m currently watching Aldnoah Zero, and the titular mobile suit there is... orange!